1. Field
This invention relates to document handling apparatus. Specifically, it relates to apparatus and a method to accomplish in a high speed printing environment the feed of envelopes on edge from and delivery back to a divided hopper.
2. Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,557 to Wu discloses for a printer, a platen driven document handling attachment with rear feed front exit portions for on edge documents in one hopper.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,923 to Watson et al. presents a picker roller for documents in a stack on edge. The picker roller has formed in its periphery a knife edge which when placed adjacent the stack projects above the flat by an amount less than the thickness of the thinnest document to be transported. The picker edge engages the endmost card when it is rotated counterclockwise to buckle the bottommost card which upon continued rotation of the picker roller springs back into a nip formed by the picker roller and a feed roller. The picker roller is smooth. The feed roller has a high coefficient of friction with regard to the document to be fed. At this point, the direction of the picker roller is reversed and because of the relation of the coefficience of friction, the document is fed by substantially sliding over the surface of the picker roller.
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 11, No. 10, March 1969, page 1301 to Lyon teaches having a belt at the base of a hopper for urging documents on edge to a picking area.